| Aug. 12, 2005 #412 | ||||||||||||||||||
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Table of Contents
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THIS JUST IN (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
(1) TEXAS TOWN IS UNNERVED BY VIOLENCE IN MEXICO (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
LAREDO, Tex. - The killings and kidnappings across the Rio Grande have
kept Marco A. Alvarado and his wife from visiting her kin in Nuevo
Laredo. | ||||||||||||||||||
William Slemaker and Pablo Cisneros haunt the border searching for clues and awaiting news of their kidnapped and long-missing daughters. | ||||||||||||||||||
Carlos Carranco Jr. and other teachers are spending vacation days in
school, wresting blue plastic guns from one another and learning how to
detect drug problems and subdue violent students, lessons that will be
followed by a mock siege this fall. | ||||||||||||||||||
Such is life these days in Laredo, the trading powerhouse and major border crossing point of 225,000 people who have been spooked by the drug wars and escalating violence in their Mexican sister city. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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(2) A DISCREET WAY TO BEAT ADDICTION (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
Law Expands Access to Pill That Helps People Hooked On Painkillers and
Other Drugs | ||||||||||||||||||
A new federal law promises to expand access to a medication that is
transforming the treatment of patients addicted to pain pills and other
drugs. | ||||||||||||||||||
For patients, the drug, called buprenorphine, is convenient and
discreet, unlike the more widely known methadone. Both are mild
narcotics that can help patients ease off of harder drugs. But
methadone is more potent and must be dispensed daily under supervision
at drug-treatment clinics, while buprenorphine is available by
prescription at local pharmacies and can be taken anywhere by
dissolving a pill under the tongue. | ||||||||||||||||||
Doctors who prescribe buprenorphine say this office-based form of rehab
appeals to patients who otherwise would never seek treatment. Some say
their patients are largely professionals -- from bankers to business
owners - -- and their family members, who have developed a dependence
on pain pills or even heroin, but couldn't imagine themselves lining up
at a methadone clinic or entering an in-patient facility. Patients say
buprenorphine makes it possible to live normal lives, including holding
down jobs, while receiving drug treatment. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
The expanding access to buprenorphine reflects a growing acceptance of
addiction of all kinds as a medical condition, not a moral failing,
that benefits from both medication and counseling. The medical
community has increasingly recognized that asking someone to go cold
turkey from drugs, nicotine or even alcohol may be unrealistic and can
have health consequences. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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(3) PROP. 36 STUDY SHOWS FLAWS, POLICE SAY (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
A UCLA Study Evaluating The Law Concerning Drug Treatment Programs
Highlights Its Failings | ||||||||||||||||||
NORTHEAST GLENDALE -- A UCLA study evaluating a California law that
assigns drug treatment to first- and second-time nonviolent narcotics
offenders instead of sending them to prison shows the proposition's
lack of success, local police say. | ||||||||||||||||||
"There are more drug offenders on the streets post-Prop. 36 then before Prop. 36, and this translates to public safety," said Glendale Capt. Lief Nicolaisen, with the department's investigative services. | ||||||||||||||||||
That is consistent with a study released Monday by UCLA evaluating the
initiative that passed in the 2000 election, which reported that only
about 25% of all offenders successfully completed treatment programs
referred through the legislation. | ||||||||||||||||||
Before Proposition 36, California used a system of drug courts, where a
judge would have the opportunity to jail offenders if they were not
sticking to a drug treatment program, Nicolaisen said. | ||||||||||||||||||
But Proposition 36 changed all that. | ||||||||||||||||||
"One of the valuable tools used by the drug courts was fear of
incarceration," Nicolaisen said. "In Prop. 36, the threat of
incarceration is not there." | ||||||||||||||||||
Relaxed laws, like Proposition 36, could reflect poorly on the Glendale
community, Nicolaisen said. | ||||||||||||||||||
"In dealing with people with substance abuse problems, before they
clean up their act, they've got to hit bottom," Nicolaisen. "As we
soften the fall, the incentive to really clean up their act diminishes.
The threat of jail really is a strong motivator." | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
Still, supporters of Proposition 36 think otherwise. | ||||||||||||||||||
"We try to be evidence-based, and no one has been able to produce a study that shows jailing people during a treatment makes them more likely to complete," said Dave Fratello, co-author of Proposition 36. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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(4) CANADA: DRUG POLICY TAILORED TO U.S. (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
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OTTAWA - The latest shot in Canada's war on drugs is a "throwaway
political gesture" that will do little to curb the spread of crystal
meth across the country, policy experts, academics and opposition
politicians said yesterday. | ||||||||||||||||||
Instead, critics believe the government's decision to increase maximum
penalties for producers, users and smugglers of the drug from 10 years
to life imprisonment appears designed to draw marginally tougher
sentences from a reluctant judicial system and bring Canada's handling
of drug crimes into line with the expectations of the United States
government. | ||||||||||||||||||
"They're doing the same old thing. They're saying we've got to do something so let's toughen up the penalties," said Ottawa drug lawyer Eugene Oscapella, of the Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy. "This is politics. These are politicians pretending to do something." | ||||||||||||||||||
The decision, announced jointly by the Justice, Health and Public
Safety ministries, changes the Criminal Code to put methamphetamine
into the same class of drugs as cocaine and heroin. | ||||||||||||||||||
In Banff, Alta., the move was applauded by premiers yesterday --
particularly in Western Canada where abuse of the drug has been most
prevalent. | ||||||||||||||||||
"I think Canadians generally should be very pleased with this news,"
said Saskatchewan Premier Lorne Calvert, adding the tougher measures
should act as a deterrent. "It's something that we as Western premiers,
when we gathered just weeks ago, called for." | ||||||||||||||||||
The move is also likely to please the United States, which expressed concern in its most recent annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report that Canada could become a major source of methamphetamine and the chemicals used to make it just as this country's marijuana crops are smuggled across the border. | ||||||||||||||||||
"Apparently, one of [the U.S. government's] objectives, and this is unbelievably offensive, is to alter and modify Canadian criminal justice policy in relation to drugs," said Alan Young, a law professor and marijuana advocate at York University. "Whether or not this is part and parcel of that exercise I have no clue ... but they've clearly stated this is the direction they want Canada to go in." | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
Domestic News- Policy | ||||||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (5-8) (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
More of the same in the American drug war this week: misplaced
priorities, crude insensitivity and arrogance which helps to feed
those misplaced priorities. | ||||||||||||||||||
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(5) CATCHING DRUG TRAFFICKERS A NEW PRIORITY (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
A year ago, Tom Lohman was part of a two-man team in Stuttgart tasked with fighting drug-related terrorism throughout Europe. | ||||||||||||||||||
Now, he is one of a dozen members of U.S. European Command's
counternarco-terrorism office that has found itself much busier this
year. | ||||||||||||||||||
As the Department of Defense takes a larger interest in drug
trafficking around the world because of links between the illegal
drug market and terrorism, people such as Lohman are finding more
work, funding and areas of control at their fingertips. | ||||||||||||||||||
Lohman, manager of EUCOM's counternarco-terrorism program since
1997, said he recently has been freed to help investigate drug
activity in areas around Europe. | ||||||||||||||||||
A change in policy after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks freed Department of Defense money for operations to crack down on drug networks around the world, even if the drugs were not coming into the United States, Lohman said. The reasoning was simple: terrorists were using money from drug trafficking to fund operations, and they were using traditional drug smuggling routes to transport weapons. | ||||||||||||||||||
Lohman's office is paying to send EUCOM Special Forces and contract workers to Azerbaijan to train the Azeri Navy in maritime security for the Caspian Guard Initiative, a new program aimed to increasing security in the Caspian Sea and countries that border it, he said. | ||||||||||||||||||
In the process, Lohman said, U.S. officials are gaining a foothold
into a drug route that has been the target of much speculation by
U.S. officials but not much investigation. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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(6) ARABIC FLAG TO REMAIN IN DRUG EXHIBIT (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration will not change portions of an exhibit at the New Detroit Science Center about the dangers of drugs and their connections to terrorism -- even though it has offended several Arab-American and Muslim groups in metro Detroit. | ||||||||||||||||||
The decision by a DEA panel to do nothing prompted the American-Arab
Anti-Discrimination Committee of Michigan this week to call for
community action. | ||||||||||||||||||
"As long as people are concerned enough to ask us to do something about it, as long as people are offended by it, we are not to rest before this is solved," says Imad Hamad, director of ADC Michigan. | ||||||||||||||||||
An e-mail message sent to thousands of ADC members in Michigan asked
people to contact the Detroit Science Center and insist that it put
pressure on the DEA to modify the exhibit. The message, sent by ADC
Michigan deputy director Rana Abbas-Chami, says "the exhibit has
created false, negative impressions of Islam." | ||||||||||||||||||
Of particular concern to groups is a handmade flag purportedly
confiscated from the Taliban displayed near rubble taken from the
9/11 attacks at the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. The white
flag reads in Arabic: "There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is
the Messenger of Allah." | ||||||||||||||||||
Representatives from ADC Michigan and the Arab Community Center for
Economic and Social Services who have viewed the exhibit say the
flag makes inaccurate connections between Islam, terrorism and drug
trafficking, given the paramount importance of the phrase to
Muslims. | ||||||||||||||||||
But Garrison Courtney, spokesman for the DEA, says the flag is meant
to represent a regime and not a religion. | ||||||||||||||||||
"To take down the flag would be to take down a large part of
history," Courtney says, adding that "the best way we can show who
the Taliban is is through their flag." | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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(7) CULTURAL DIFFERENCES COMPLICATE A GEORGIA DRUG STING OPERATION (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
ROME, Ga. - When they charged 49 convenience store clerks and owners
in rural northwest Georgia with selling materials used to make
methamphetamine, federal prosecutors declared that they had
conclusive evidence. Hidden microphones and cameras, they said, had
caught the workers acknowledging that the products would be used to
make the drug. | ||||||||||||||||||
But weeks of court motions have produced many questions. Forty-four
of the defendants are Indian immigrants - 32, mostly unrelated, are
named Patel - and many spoke little more than the kind of
transactional English mocked in sitcoms. | ||||||||||||||||||
So when a government informant told store clerks that he needed the
cold medicine, matches and camping fuel to "finish up a cook," some
of them said they figured he must have meant something about
barbecue. | ||||||||||||||||||
The case of Operation Meth Merchant illustrates another difficulty for law enforcement officials fighting methamphetamine, a highly addictive drug that can be made with ordinary grocery store items. | ||||||||||||||||||
Many states, including Georgia, have recently enacted laws
restricting the sale of common cold medicines like Sudafed, and
nationwide, the police are telling merchants to be suspicious of
sales of charcoal, coffee filters, aluminum foil and Kitty Litter.
Walgreens agreed this week to pay $1.3 million for failing to
monitor the sale of over-the-counter cold medicine that was bought
by a methamphetamine dealer in Texas. | ||||||||||||||||||
But the case here is also complicated by culture. Prosecutors have
had to drop charges against one defendant they misidentified,
presuming that the Indian woman inside the store must be the same
Indian woman whose name appeared on the registration for a van
parked outside, and lawyers have gathered evidence arguing that
another defendant is the wrong Patel. | ||||||||||||||||||
The biggest problem, defense lawyers say, is the language barrier
between an immigrant store clerk and the undercover informants who
used drug slang or quick asides to convey that they were planning to
make methamphetamine. | ||||||||||||||||||
"They're not really paying attention to what they're being told,"
said Steve Sadow, one of the lawyers. "Their business is: I ring it
up, you leave, I've done my job. Call it language or idiom or
culture, I'm not sure you're able to show they know there's anything
wrong with what they're doing." | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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(8) U.S. NAVAL NARCS IN VICTORIA (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
Undercover Agents Target Drug Dealers Selling To Sailors | ||||||||||||||||||
The U.S. navy -- in an effort to discourage drug dealers from selling to sailors -- routinely plays undercover cop in Victoria. | ||||||||||||||||||
The undercover work performed by the U.S. Naval Criminal
Investigative Service is under the command of Victoria police, who
make any and all arrests. | ||||||||||||||||||
But Victoria defence lawyer Robert Moore-Stewart, with a client
recently charged after one of these stings, said the practice
amounts to Canada getting co-opted into the U.S. war on drugs. "It's
really signing up for one of George Bush's wars," said | ||||||||||||||||||
"We are taking orders from the big guys down the street and we are
supposed to be in charge up here not them," he said. | ||||||||||||||||||
Moore-Stewart drew parallels with Marc Emery of Vancouver, the
self-described Prince of Pot and leader of the B.C. Marijuana party.
He was arrested last week in Halifax at the behest of the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration. | ||||||||||||||||||
Emery, 47, granted bail on Monday in Vancouver, now faces
extradition to the U.S., where sentences range as high as life, for
allegedly selling marijuana seeds. | ||||||||||||||||||
Canadian lawyers and Canadian civil libertarians have complained
Emery's arrest comes at a time when Canada is moving to liberalize
marijuana laws. Canadian police should not be marching to U.S. drums
in their war on drugs, they say. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
Naughton said typically the U.S. navy supplies undercover operatives
who pose as American sailors. These undercover sailors make drug
purchases and then alert Victoria police. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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Law Enforcement & Prisons | ||||||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (9-12) (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
Some of the people recruited to fight the drug war don't seem to have very strong ethics, while a group of prisoners does. Also, meth labs are incurring huge costs for some rural police departments, and at least one department is trying to quantify those costs. | ||||||||||||||||||
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(9) DRUG DEALER ALLEGED TO HAVE DUAL ROLE (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
A convicted drug dealer implicated in the April murder of a federal informant was himself helping authorities as they investigated cocaine trafficking in Mingo County, court filings show. | ||||||||||||||||||
George M. "Porgy" Lecco was also allowed to keep some of the drugs
investigators found when they raided his Red Jacket pizza parlor in
February, one U.S. District Court filing alleges. | ||||||||||||||||||
Lecco, 56, has not been charged in the murder of Carla Collins, but a sworn statement from one investigator labels him her alleged killer. Jailed since May 4 on pending drug charges, Lecco was unavailable for comment Thursday. His lawyers, the federal public defender's office, did not respond to requests for comment. | ||||||||||||||||||
Lecco was previously convicted on federal cocaine charges in 1990. A
federal grand jury indicted him May 24 on five counts alleging he
sold cocaine out of the Pizza Plus between June 2004 and Feb. 16,
when the business was raided. | ||||||||||||||||||
A motion filed by Lecco's lawyers last month alleges the officers
who conducted the raid took both drugs and cash from Lecco, but also
left some of both. | ||||||||||||||||||
Other court filings show that as a result of the raid, Lecco agreed
to help a state-federal task force investigate drug dealing in the
area. | ||||||||||||||||||
"He would provide phone calls, he would meet up with us and give us
information, just various things," State Police Sgt. D.M. Nelson
testified in a May 9 hearing in Lecco's drug case. | ||||||||||||||||||
"He didn't make any controlled buys, but he would provide
information, and it would lead us to believe that he was cooperating
with the government," Nelson said, according to the transcript of
the hearing. | ||||||||||||||||||
But Lecco's arrangement with investigators began to sour in April,
Nelson testified. For one thing, Lecco continued to sell drugs,
Nelson said. He also allegedly began to threaten would-be drug
customers after suspecting them of being informants. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
(Corruption - United States)
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(10) THIS MOLE'S STILL FOR HIRE (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
During a four-month sting operation, capped with a late-June sweep
timed to coincide with a well-publicized Meth Summit, the Yamhill
County Interagency Narcotics Team employed a career informant
trailing a criminal record and a well-documented history of
entrapment, the News-Register has learned. | ||||||||||||||||||
Repeating a pitch polished over 32 years of paid informant work in
Oregon, Washington and California, the 51-year-old Portlander
dangled hope of high-paying construction and landscaping work. Those
tactics stirred such controversy in the early 1980s that even the
attorney general felt moved to condemn them, but he seems to have
flown below the public radar ever since. | ||||||||||||||||||
Following his script, investigation shows, undercover operative Marc
"The Mole" Caven suggested it would help applicants' prospects if
they could hook him up with a bit of methamphetamine or marijuana.
And at least 46 of them succumbed to the pitch, landing them berths
in the Yamhill County Jail. | ||||||||||||||||||
The suspects include a 22-year-old McMinnville youth who finally came up with less than half an ounce of marijuana after reportedly being hounded by Caven on a daily basis for weeks. Pumping gas, the lure of construction work at $10.50 an hour got the better of him. | ||||||||||||||||||
Now facing the Class A felony charge of delivery, pegging him as a
dealer, he fears he will never get the financial aid to follow
through on college plans. He said he's feeling "like my life is
over." | ||||||||||||||||||
A 19-year-old Amity youth was so excited about the job promised to him that he carried Caven's phony business card everywhere he went, called his big brother in California with the news and laid plans to buy some sturdy work boots. He's also facing a felony charge - one sharing Class A status with murder, rape and kidnapping. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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(11) PRISON'S 'LIFERS' TACKLING CRIME (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
The street is where crime breeds. Its code is an eye for an eye, a
life for a life. Honor means not being a snitch. And disrespect can
get you killed. | ||||||||||||||||||
This so-called "street culture" is foreign to most Bucks and
Montgomery County residents. But with drug gangs from Philadelphia,
Trenton and Allentown inching ever closer to our borders, experts
say it's a language we must learn. | ||||||||||||||||||
The answer might come from deep within Pennsylvania's most populated
maximum-security prison. | ||||||||||||||||||
At the State Correctional Institution at Graterford in Skippack,
Montgomery County, a group of inmates serving life on Tuesday
presented its plan to end the culture of street crime. | ||||||||||||||||||
The program by LIFERS Inc. was held in conjunction with the 14th
World Congress of Criminality, a convention in Philadelphia this
week that is drawing crime prevention experts from as far away as
Australia and Great Britain. | ||||||||||||||||||
The 80-member inmate organization meets weekly inside the prison to
discuss ways to make their home communities better. Participants say
that although they will never walk the streets again, they want
their families to live in a safer environment. | ||||||||||||||||||
"We have a vested interest in eradicating crime," said Tyrone, a
52-year-old Philadelphia resident serving life for second-degree
murder. "Our families still live on those streets." | ||||||||||||||||||
Tyrone - prison officials do not allow inmates' last names to be
published - - said that the current criminal justice approach to
stemming crime is failing because street culture rewards criminal
behavior and makes rehabilitation nearly impossible. | ||||||||||||||||||
Unless attitudes out there are changed, he said, more young people
will end up behind bars. | ||||||||||||||||||
"No matter how many people we arrest, no matter how many prisons we
build . you take a person off the streets, there will always be
someone to take his place. It's a continuous flow. An assembly
line." | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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(12) METH BUSTS TAKE TOLL ON POLICE RESOURCES (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
In recent years, number of Lowcountry labs has grown considerably | ||||||||||||||||||
It was a sticky June morning when Charleston County investigators
swept down on the secluded slice of Yonge's Island. Their target: a
methamphetamine "cook" brewing his latest batch of the highly
addictive drug. | ||||||||||||||||||
In just a few minutes, detectives had slapped handcuffs on the
suspect and placed him under arrest. But their real work was just
beginning. | ||||||||||||||||||
Wearing protective suits, investigators carefully picked through the
site for more than six hours, ever watchful for the danger posed by
harmful vapors and volatile chemicals. | ||||||||||||||||||
The job chewed up thousands in tax dollars and the better part of a day for some 15 law enforcement officers, as well as a dozen firefighters, emergency medical workers, hazardous material specialists and state environmental officials. That was before crews even began probing possible environmental damage to the land. | ||||||||||||||||||
Welcome to the world of meth. | ||||||||||||||||||
"You end up putting a lot of time and manpower into these things,
and you get nothing out of it," said Lt. David Robertson of the
county's metro narcotics squad. "If this were a business, it would
bankrupt you." | ||||||||||||||||||
The number of Lowcountry meth labs has grown dramatically in recent
years, forcing law enforcement agencies to devote increasing amounts
of money and manpower to combating the problem. | ||||||||||||||||||
The federal Drug Enforcement Administration spent $499,000 in the
past fiscal year cleaning up 254 meth labs in South Carolina. The
agency is on pace to match those numbers this year. Since October,
the DEA has spent $475,000 in the Palmetto State cleaning up 209
labs, 51 of them in the Lowcountry, said John Ozaluk, agent in
charge of the DEA in South Carolina. | ||||||||||||||||||
An average lab with no complications costs at least $2,000 to clean up, and "the cost only goes up from that point," Ozaluk said. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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Cannabis & Hemp- | ||||||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (13-16) (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
This week we continue to report on the DEA extradition request for
Canada's "Prince of Pot", Marc Emery. We begin with a great column
by Joel Connelly of California's Daily Breeze. In his column, Mr.
Connelly explains why recent public comments by DEA chief Karen
Tandy may actually hamper the U.S.' extradition request. Our second
story examines yet another report of overzealous drug enforcement in
the U.S., where a Florida man named Anthony Diotaiuto's was killed
by a SWAT team looking for drugs. The police apparently found two
ounces of cannabis in the 23 year-olds home after they shooting him
ten times, killing the young man at the scene. | ||||||||||||||||||
Our third story looks at a new cannabis deprioritization initiative
in Telluride, Colorado that will appear on the ballot next November.
The initiative would make the personal possession of cannabis by
adults the lowest possible priority for local police, and would also
see the city council work towards a regulated distribution system
with the state. And lastly this week, a review of the new Showtime
TV series called "Weeds", in which Mary-Louise Parker plays a soccer
mom who makes ends meet by selling cannabis. The hype around this
show has been enormous, and the reviews fairly favorable, so let's
hope that the heroine doesn't get busted or shot by the DEA or
police before the end of the first season. Oh that's right, "Weeds"
is fiction; the murdering or persecution of innocent adult cannabis
users, well that's reality TV. | ||||||||||||||||||
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(13) DEA POT CASE GOING UP IN SMOKE? (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
The DEA Boss May Help Transform A Publicity Seeker Into A Canadian
Martyr | ||||||||||||||||||
In their search for proof that Bigfoot exists, researchers ought to
take hair samples from the Washington, D.C., offices of Drug
Enforcement Administration boss Karen Tandy. | ||||||||||||||||||
Tandy has left giant footprints on the drug prosecution of Vancouver
mail-order pot entrepreneur, and B.C. Marijuana Party founder, Marc
Emery. With an ill-advised statement politicizing the case and even
misspelling Emery's first name, the DEA boss may help transform a
publicity seeker into a Canadian martyr. | ||||||||||||||||||
Seeking to stop his extradition to the United States -- where he
faces charges of trafficking in marijuana seeds -- Emery's legal
team could use Tandy's words to telling effect: Their client is
being prosecuted for his beliefs. The U.S. Attorney's Office in
Seattle brought charges against Emery last week, based on
investigative work by the local DEA office. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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(14) MAN KILLED BY SUNRISE POLICE IN DRUG RAID HAD 2 OUNCES OF MARIJUANA (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
Police seized 2 ounces of marijuana at the home of Anthony Diotaiuto
after shooting him 10 times, according to information on the drug
raid released Tuesday. | ||||||||||||||||||
Also Tuesday, while many friends and relatives of the 23-year-old
bartender and student mourned him at a Davie funeral home, others
appeared at a Sunrise City Commission meeting to demand an
explanation for the fatal raid. "Do 2 ounces of marijuana constitute
a death warrant?" asked Sunrise resident William de Larm, a friend
of Diotaiuto's. | ||||||||||||||||||
Earlier, police officials released a summary of the information they
used to obtain the search warrant, listed what was seized from the
house, and detailed what police say happened between Diotaiuto and
SWAT officers Friday morning. | ||||||||||||||||||
Neighbors and family dispute those details. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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(15) MARIJUANA INITIATIVE SET FOR NOV. BALLOT (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
While a marijuana ordinance has received more than enough support to place it on the November ballot, it was the initiative's opponents who were most vocal at the Telluride Town Council meeting Tuesday. | ||||||||||||||||||
Speaking passionately about their opposition to marijuana use, about
a half-dozen opponents spoke out about the negative implications of
an ordinance that would relax the enforcement of marijuana laws and
support a statewide system of legalization, distribution and
taxation. | ||||||||||||||||||
A number of supporters also spoke during a half-hour debate that
ended without consensus. | ||||||||||||||||||
The town council had two options: to either endorse the ordinance
and therefore put it on the books, or place the ordinance on the
November ballot. | ||||||||||||||||||
The council showed no inclination toward passing the measure themselves. Instead, they chose unanimously to let voters decide. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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(16) VICIOUS HONESTY LURKING IN SHOWTIME'S "WEEDS" (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
A comedy about a housewife selling marijuana in the suburbs is so
simultaneously passe and outlandish that you have to hope it's a
mask for something deeper. Showtime's new comedy "Weeds" is all
that, yet I'm not sure the time is worth the dime. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
"Weeds" concerns Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker), whose husband
has dropped dead of a heart attack and who is left almost penniless
with her two sons in the psychologically arid and entirely fictional
town of Agrestic, Calif. | ||||||||||||||||||
The series opens to the tune of that old indictment of suburbia,
"Little Boxes," and as the McMansions materialize on the screen,
thoughts turn to "Desperate Housewives." | ||||||||||||||||||
But this is misleading; beneath the polite facade, Agrestic is as
hard as an 1880s mining camp. Every character's soul seems to have
dried up while pursuing the good life under the California sun. If
"Deadwood" is where ruthless capitalism takes wing, "Weeds" is where
it comes home to roost. [snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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International News | ||||||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (17-22) (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
"It turns out that the DEA was using the fight against drugs
trafficking as a cover to undertake intelligence work in Venezuela
against the government, even to support drugs trafficking," President
Hugo Chavez of Venezuela said last week. And with that, Venezuela
booted the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) from his oil-producing
South American nation. U.S. officials, predictably, denied all
charges. | ||||||||||||||||||
U.K. prohibitionists just can't understand it: prohibition isn't
working. It is not for lack of jailing drug users. The U.K. (overly
impressed by the U.S.) jails drug-using citizens with great gusto.
But a third of released prisoners test positive for an illegal drug,
as an article from last week's BBC admits. Another article, this one
from the U.K. Evening Times floated the idea of providing Naloxone
opiate-antidote kits to addicts, though some disprove. Better not
give users a way to preserve life after a heroin O.D., say ardent
prohibitionists, because that way drug users won't feel free to take
as much heroin as they want. Other U.K. prohibitionists think that a
few more anti-drug ads might do the trick. The "powerful new
adverts" shall dispel myths that "heroin is safe" when smoked,
reported the Scotsman newspaper last week. | ||||||||||||||||||
Prohibitionists in the Philippines were just full of facts and
figures last week, claiming to know the number of pushers in the
Calabarzon region (7,866), as well as the number of working drug
users in the nation (about 2 million). Local police were encouraged
in their acts of "neutralizing" the "pushers". (Extralegal
executions of drug suspects continue at a record pace in the
Philippines this year.) Philippine government officials likewise
urged employers to "eradicate" drug use by workers. | ||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
(17) CHAVEZ ABANDONS CO-OPERATION WITH U.S. OVER DRUGS (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
Venezuela has severed ties with the U.S. counter-drugs agency after
accusing it of spying, a move that the US on Monday described as the
final break in weakening security co-operation between the two
governments. President Hugo Chavez, who often claims Washington is
conspiring to overthrow or assassinate him, said on Sunday he had
suspended agreements with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA). | ||||||||||||||||||
The DEA operates in most countries of Latin America, except Cuba, and especially in drugs-producing countries in the Andean region and in transit countries in Central America and the Caribbean. In recent years Venezuela has become a corridor through which about a third of the cocaine from neighbouring Colombia is smuggled. DEA agents usually operate in conjunction with local authorities, and in the case of Venezuela with the National Guard, a militarised police force charged with upholding border and airport security. | ||||||||||||||||||
But Mr Chavez claimed the DEA was carrying out a different task. "It turns out that the DEA was using the fight against drugs trafficking as a cover to undertake intelligence work in Venezuela against the government, even to support drugs trafficking," Mr Chavez claimed. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
In April, Mr Chavez terminated joint military operations with the U.S. and ended a joint military officer training agreement. | ||||||||||||||||||
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(18) ROW OVER PRISONER DRUG ADDICTION (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
About a third of Scotland's prisoners are using drugs at the time of
their release from jail, it has emerged. The Scottish National Party
said the figures showed the need for the Scottish Executive to do
more to tackle drug addiction. | ||||||||||||||||||
The statistics were revealed by Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson in a
reply to a parliamentary question. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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(19) HOW CAN WE STOP THE RISE OF DRUG-RELATED DEATHS? (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
Drug Deaths Are On The Increase With More Than 300 Last Year. So
What Is Wrong With The Support Systems And How Can The We Cut The
Number Of Deaths? Michelle Gallacher Talks To Leading Experts And A
Former Addict To Find The Answers. | ||||||||||||||||||
Addicts could be given emergency drug kits to be used to revive them if they overdose. The radical idea is being proposed in a bid to halt the rising number of drug related deaths in Scotland. | ||||||||||||||||||
Currently being piloted in England and already hailed a success in
America, the suggestion was among an array of proposals discussed at
a conference in Glasgow. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
In Manchester, the police stopped routinely attending ambulance
call-outs. Evidence suggests this encouraged addicts to summon
medical help. This is now being considered in Scotland. | ||||||||||||||||||
In London drugs kits which include a heroin blocker called Naloxone
have been given to addicts to keep them alive until ambulance crews
arrive. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
Medical opinion is divided on Naloxone, but Dr Strang insists he's
discovered no side effects so far and believes emergency supplies
should be given out. | ||||||||||||||||||
However, some medics feel drug users may see it as a licence to take
as much heroin as they want without risk. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
(20) FEARS FOR YOUNG SCOTS WHO BELIEVE HEROIN SMOKING WON'T HARM (Top)THEM | ||||||||||||||||||
THOUSANDS of young Scots are getting hooked on heroin because they
mistakenly believe it is safe to smoke the deadly drug. | ||||||||||||||||||
Drug experts are warning that many young people in Scotland wrongly
think that as long as they don't inject heroin they will not become
addicted. | ||||||||||||||||||
But the reality is that seven out of ten heroin addicts start out
smoking the drug. | ||||||||||||||||||
A hard-hitting campaign is being launched in Scotland today in a bid to dispel the myth that smoking heroin is safe. Children as young as 13 are being targeted by the Scottish Executive campaign, the latest in the Executive's Know the Score educational initiative, although the message is mainly aimed at older teenagers aged 16-19 years old. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
The powerful new adverts will run on Scottish Television, Channel 4
and Five from today until September 13. | ||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
(21) CALABARZON HAS 7,866 DRUG PUSHERS (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
THERE are at least 7,866 persons peddling illegal drugs in the five
provinces comprising the Calabarzon region who are under the watch
list of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency. | ||||||||||||||||||
In a talk with Supt. Abe Lemos, Region 4-A PDEA director whose area
of responsibility covers the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas,
Rizal and Quezon, People's Tonight also learned that their watch
list only covers suspected pushers who have been earlier 'profiled'
or identified by the agency and validated through sources and
information received from the local government units and the
Philippine National Police. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
Greatly undermanned to run after the thousands of drug | ||||||||||||||||||
PDEA's regional office only has a total of 40 personnel, including
officials, while the "ideal" number to make its interdiction work
more effective is "at least 100 personnel," PDEA operatives told
People's Tonight. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
(22) 2M WORKERS ARE DRUG USERS: LABOR (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
AT LEAST 2 million Filipino workers are hooked into illegal drugs, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) reported Thursday. | ||||||||||||||||||
The labor department cited a 2004 National Household Survey
conducted by the National Statistics Office (NSO), which showed that
there are 6.7 million Filipinos who are into substance abuse and 30
percent of them are workers. | ||||||||||||||||||
The study also showed that majority of the drug dependents are in
their productive years and living in the National Capital Region
(NCR). | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
Imson urged employers to adopt a system that would eradicate drug
addition in the workplace. | ||||||||||||||||||
He said there is a need to address the drug problem because a
workplace is considered the second home of a worker. | ||||||||||||||||||
Imson also said efforts should not only be geared toward providing a
safe workplace but also training those who will see to it that their
workplace is drug-free. | ||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
HOT OFF THE 'NET (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
MARC EMERY: MY MESSAGE TO YOU | ||||||||||||||||||
By Marc Emery (11 Aug, 2005) | ||||||||||||||||||
Marc writes about how he feels about his extradition case, and reflects on what he has done so far in his activist career. | ||||||||||||||||||
Television and radio programs covering the arrests, including a video
message from Marc Emery, are online at http://pot.tv/ | ||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
Why Does Drug Reporting Suck? Still. | ||||||||||||||||||
By Jack Shafer | ||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
U.S. THREATENS TO PULL VENEZUELA DRUG WAR CERTIFICATION | ||||||||||||||||||
Reactions to Venezuelan Government's Split with the DEA | ||||||||||||||||||
By Dan Feder, Special to The Narco News Bulletin | ||||||||||||||||||
August 9, 2005 | ||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
IS SAN FRANCISCO GOING TO POT? | ||||||||||||||||||
Last month Drug Policy Alliance executive director Ethan Nadelmann
spoke at a public forum in San Francsico about marijuana. Mayor Gavin
Newsom gave introductory remarks, and Nadelmann spoke on the future
of drug policy both domestically and internationally, as well as on
San Francisco's role as a leader in reform. | ||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
BAD MEDICINE? | ||||||||||||||||||
By Scott Thill, AlterNet. Posted August 9, 2005. | ||||||||||||||||||
Cannabis is proven to be a fairly harmless drug -- so why is the
American right still waging a massive war on weed? | ||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
MARINOL VERSUS NATURAL CANNABIS | ||||||||||||||||||
New NORML Report Examines The Pros And Cons Of Synthetic THC Compared
To Cannabis | ||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
CULTURAL BAGGAGE RADIO SHOW | ||||||||||||||||||
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| ||||||||||||||||||
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS: CALL A TRUCE IN AMERICA'S DRUG WAR | ||||||||||||||||||
By Arianna Huffington | ||||||||||||||||||
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/arianna-huffington/support-our-troops-call_5382.html | ||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
WHAT YOU CAN DO THIS WEEK (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
JOIN US FOR "HOW TO INCREASE DPR MEDIA IN YOUR AREA" | ||||||||||||||||||
Sun. August 14 2005, 09:00 p.m. CT | ||||||||||||||||||
MAP's Media Activism Facilitator Steve Heath will be joined by some of
our most prominent and prolific letter and opinion writers from around
the U.S. and Canada. Included in the discussions will be quick and easy
tips and directions for how to increase printed Letters to the Editor,
OPED columns and newspaper Editorials on any of several current hot
topics related to national and state drug policies. | ||||||||||||||||||
For more information see: http://mapinc.org/onair/details.php?id=412 | ||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
BECOME A MAP NEWSHAWK | ||||||||||||||||||
The articles that appear each week in DrugSense Weekly have been
forwarded to us by readers like you. You can help to make sure we don't
miss any of the news by becoming a newshawk and sending drug-related
articles to our clipping service. | ||||||||||||||||||
To find out how, visit: | ||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
LETTER OF THE WEEK (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
EMERY ARREST ATTACKS CANADIAN SOVEREIGNTY | ||||||||||||||||||
By Craig Hunter | ||||||||||||||||||
As a Canadian and a former police officer now living in the U.S., I
am ashamed and appalled at the arrest of Mark Emery and the scene
unfolding in the country I call home. | ||||||||||||||||||
Despite the long relationship involving extradition between Canada
and the U.S., this arrest is a reflection of the protectionism that
isolates Americans from the rest of the world. | ||||||||||||||||||
Are we to stand by and allow our U.S. cousins to insult Canadian
dominion of Canadian law? | ||||||||||||||||||
The part of Canada's collective personality that stands out
worldwide is our embrace of independent thought, which is reflected
by our laws. | ||||||||||||||||||
The motto of the RCMP, "Maintiens le Droit," meaning "defend the
law," should now be an outraged gasp by every Canadian. | ||||||||||||||||||
If a person commits a crime in Canada, that person must be charged, then face the protection of due process of Canadian law. | ||||||||||||||||||
Shame on the RCMP, the Vancouver and Halifax Police and ultimately
the Government of Canada for allowing this mockery of Canadian
sovereignty. | ||||||||||||||||||
Craig Hunter, | ||||||||||||||||||
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LETTER WRITER OF THE MONTH - JULY | ||||||||||||||||||
DrugSense recognizes Redford Givens, webmaster, DRCNet Online Library of Drug Policy, San Francisco for his three letters published during July. This brings Redford's total published letters, that we know of, to 122 as noted at http://www.mapinc.org/lte/ You may read all his published letters at http://www.mapinc.org/writer/Redford+Givens | ||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
FEATURE ARTICLE (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
DEBUNKING THE DRUG WAR | ||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
John Tierney | ||||||||||||||||||
America has a serious drug problem, but it's not the "meth epidemic"
getting so much publicity. It's the problem identified by William
Bennett, the former national drug czar and gambler. | ||||||||||||||||||
"Using drugs," he wrote, "is wrong not simply because drugs create
medical problems; it is wrong because drugs destroy one's moral
sense. People addicted to drugs neglect their duties." | ||||||||||||||||||
This problem afflicts a small minority of the people who have tried
methamphetamines, but most of the law-enforcement officials and
politicians who lead the war against drugs. They're so consumed with
drugs that they've lost sight of their duties. | ||||||||||||||||||
Like addicts desperate for a high, they've declared meth the new
crack, which was once called the new heroin ( that title now belongs
to OxyContin ). With the help of the press, they're once again
frightening the public with tales of a drug so seductive it
instantly turns masses of upstanding citizens into addicts who ruin
their health, their lives and their families. | ||||||||||||||||||
Amphetamines can certainly do harm and are a fad in some places. But
there's little evidence of a new national epidemic from patterns of
drug arrests or drug use. The percentage of high school seniors
using amphetamines has remained fairly constant in the past decade,
and actually declined slightly the past two years. | ||||||||||||||||||
Nor is meth diabolically addictive. If an addict is someone who has
used a drug in the previous month ( a commonly used, if overly
broad, definition ), then only 5 percent of Americans who have
sampled meth would be called addicts, according to the federal
government's National Survey on Drug Use and Health. | ||||||||||||||||||
That figure is slightly higher than the addiction rate for people who have sampled heroin (3 percent ), but it's lower than for crack ( 8 percent ), painkillers (10 percent ), marijuana ( 15 percent ) or cigarettes ( 37 percent ). Among people who have sampled alcohol, 60 percent had a drink the previous month, and 27 percent went on a binge ( defined as five drinks on one occasion ) during the month. | ||||||||||||||||||
Drug warriors point to the dangers of home-cooked meth labs, which
start fires and create toxic waste. But those labs and the burn
victims are a result of the drug war itself. | ||||||||||||||||||
Amphetamine pills were easily available, sold over the counter until
the 1950's, then routinely prescribed by doctors to patients who
wanted to lose weight or stay awake. It was only after the
authorities cracked down in the 1970's that many people turned to
home labs, criminal gangs and more dangerous ways of ingesting the
drug. | ||||||||||||||||||
It's the same pattern observed during Prohibition, when illicit
stills would blow up, and there was a rise in deaths from alcohol
poisoning. Far from instilling virtue in Americans, Prohibition
caused them to switch from beer and wine to hard liquor. Overall
consumption of alcohol might even have increased. | ||||||||||||||||||
Today we tolerate alcohol, even though it causes far more harm than
illegal drugs, because we realize a ban would be futile, create more
problems than it cured and deprive too many people of something they
value. | ||||||||||||||||||
Amphetamines have benefits, too, which is why Air Force pilots are given them. "Most people took amphetamines responsibly when they were freely available," said Jacob Sullum, the author of "Saying Yes," a book debunking drug scares. "Like most drugs, their benefits outweigh the costs for most people. I'd rather be driving next to a truck driver on speed than a truck driver who's falling sleep." | ||||||||||||||||||
Shutting down every meth lab in America wouldn't eliminate meth because most of it is imported, but the police and prosecutors have escalated their efforts anyway and inflicted more collateral damage. | ||||||||||||||||||
In Georgia they're prosecuting dozens of Indian convenience-store
clerks and managers for selling cold medicine and other legal
products. As Kate Zernike reported in The Times, some of them spoke
little English and seemed to have no idea the medicine was being
used to make meth. | ||||||||||||||||||
The prosecutors seem afflicted by the confused moral thinking that
Mr. Bennett blames on narcotics. "Drugs," he wrote, "undermine the
necessary virtues of a free society - autonomy, self-reliance and
individual responsibility." | ||||||||||||||||||
If you value individual responsibility, why send a hard-working
clerk to jail for not divining that someone else might manufacture a
drug? And why spend three decades repeating the errors of
Prohibition for a drug that was never as dangerous as alcohol in the
first place? | ||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
QUOTE OF THE WEEK (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
"The real voyage of discovery consists of not in seeking new landscapes
but in having new eyes." - Marcel Proust | ||||||||||||||||||
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